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Wrong tire choice for Jonathan Rea, who chose not to risk it, unlike Scott Redding, and got on the track with wets. The British rider crossed the line in second position and achieved the best desirable result for himself in Race-2 in Aragon, after he nearly fell during the first laps after colliding with Garrett Gerloff.
“The accident with Gerloff was a surprise for me, especially in the very first part of the race,” Rea observed. “Scott had the wets. It was probably the right choice. Three minutes before the start, I went to ask the guys in the garage if there was actually a set of slicks, but it was too late by then. I knew the track would dry out at some point and Scott would catch up. That maneuver came early and, on that part of the track, I was very lucky not to slip. I took hold of the accelerator and managed to detach my bike from his. I crossed the gravel fairly quickly, and then managed to get back into the race. I let some bikes pass, so I didn’t have any advantage.”
Kawasaki’s number one rider then added:
“After the collision, I ended up in a good battle with Van De Mark and Lowes. I quickly saw that I was stronger in some areas, while they were more nervous and, with three or four laps to go, I tried to break away. I expected a huge drop in the tires during the race, but it didn’t happen. I remained fairly constant, also thanks to the guys in the garage. I had a really good set-up. Conditions are always an unknown because you always make assumptions. You never really know what the track will be like. I think we maximized the weekend by doing our best. The only way to organize a perfect weekend is to make a different tire choice and also risk a little.”
You’re already leading the championship ...
“It’s the first weekend of the championship. We don’t want to think about it but, obviously, it’s nice to start this way. I started much better than last year. I’m in the best position I could ever be in.”
The choice of tire was wrong. How can a mistake like that be avoided?
“I would have expected that, around the tenth lap, the medium tires would start to drop but, throughout the race, I never had that feeling. If I had to do the same race tomorrow, it would be equally difficult. Making a decision twenty minutes before the pit lane opens is tough. A lot of time goes by. Maybe we should have thought about it a little more or maybe, in those conditions, we should have sent one or two guys around the circuit to get us some information on the radio. Today, it was clearly the wrong choice, but I still felt very consistent.”
What do you think of the Michelin tires, considering also what happened last weekend in MotoGP, with lots of falls?
“I don’t want to be involved in this. I don’t want any headlines written about what I think about Michelin. No comment.”
